I'm new to HF and I'm currently 'experimenting' with wire aerials. I'm only interested in recieving.I've got a G5RV Antenna in the loft, but I'm desperately short of space, so I've ended up with the wire being zig-zagged all over the place. I'm sure that this isn't exactly efficient. While I can often get Shannon quite clearly, I rarely get to hear both sides of the conversation. I have recieved Gander VOLMET, but it wasn't ideal.So I bought some speaker wire and started experimenting further.....My garden isn't massive so I started with 33 feet from an upstairs window going to the end of the garden. The results were impressive, compared to the loft set-up. Still only getting one side of conversations generally, but much clearer. Then I tried 66 feet under similair conditions, although I had to do a 90 degree bend across the garden. This wasn't at all good. But was it the weather conditions ?I then replaced the two 52 feet wire 'legs' on the G5RV Antenna with just one 33 feet speaker wire one and it was much better than the manufacturers set-up.I relsih a challenge, but I do feel that I'm perhaps going around in circles to some degree.Would a balun or unun have any effect ?

So to my real question ..... Discone offer a HF verison of their scanner antennas. It appears too good to be true - is it ?If I was to stick it on a 10 foot pole on my roof would it be effective ? Could I get rid of all of this wire ?!?!

I have a short off centre fed dipole (Windom) zig zagged around my loft & it is not ideal, but they do work. A discone will work at HF, but so do 2 feet of less of telescopic antenna on a portable radio. But neither works at all well.A balun may improve things on one frequency, but not others as it will always change by the 4:1, 9:1 etc ratio. So good bad or indifferent it will change it. Some frequencies will be better, some will be worse.A 9:1 is a traditional SWL balun. And if it's a Balun that has an earthing capability, then thats an advantage, as it will reduce some background noise.G5RV's are notoriously deaf. So there are better options. A dipole that is cut for around 6mhz, may be a good option?? I use to have a 48 meter (6.2 mhz) dipole in my loft back in my broadcasting days.

I think my next move will probably to make a di-pole that will fit in the space I have outside. Probably an inverted V utilising the two 33 feet wires that I have already used to good effect. Then to tweak it for interference.

I knew when I got into this that it would involve a lot of trial and error so I suppose I only have myself to blame !